Suppose you are an educator with practically no budget and a classroom full of easily bored students. You probably already discovered Game Show Presenter software, which helps you increase participation and attention, especially for pretest review sessions. But you'd really like to have a true buzzer system to use with the game show software. While most buzzer systems cost hundreds (and here's a list of professional game show buzzers if that's what you need), here's a buzzer solution that will only cost one tenth that price.

Thanks to an innovative customer at the University of Michigan, we've learned of a bargain buzzer system solution. They discovered the trivia board game "Quizzard" contains a buzzer system that works great with Game Show Presenter software!

The Quizzard buzzer is part of a trivia board game that was manufactured by Random House in the 1980s. It allows up to 6 players or teams and uses a light to signal which player buzzed in first.

On ebay, you can often find the Quizzard game and the very similar game Sale of the Century, which appears to have the same buzzer system in it. (We just did a quick search at ebay and found 9 Quizzard units up for auction as of this writing.) For testing, we bought a used Quizzard for $17 (shipping included), which puts this low-cost buzzer system within almost any teacher or school budget.

Of course, every bargain comes with precautions, so take note:

• The buzzers have cheap plastic buttons that may not stand up to much pounding from the student body.
• Quizzard is a battery powered system, so try to make sure any game you bid on is in working order. You don't want one that was stored with leaking batteries!
• Some sellers on ebay are actually selling Quizzard trivia booklets that were sold separate to the board game. So if you search for "Quizzard", those will also turn up. Make sure you are bidding on the actual game.
• You may also find "Quizzard" at garage sales or thrift shops, as did our friend at the U. of Mich.

To learn more about Game Show Presenter software, view the screenshot tour or download the free trial version.